Empire - Niall Ferguson

Once vast swathes of the globe were
coloured imperial red and Britannia ruled not just the waves, but the
prairies of America, the plains of Asia, the jungles of Africa and the
deserts of Arabia. Just how did a small, rainy island in the North
Atlantic achieve all this? And why did the empire on which the sun
literally never set finally decline and fall? Niall Ferguson's acclaimed
Empire brilliantly unfolds the imperial story in all its splendours and
its miseries, showing how a gang of buccaneers and gold-diggers planted
the seed of the biggest empire in all history - and set the world on
the road to modernity.

'The most brilliant British historian of his generation ... Ferguson
examines the roles of "pirates, planters, missionaries, mandarins,
bankers and bankrupts" in the creation of history's largest empire ...
he writes with splendid panache ... and a seemingly effortless, debonair
wit'
Andrew Roberts

'Dazzling ... wonderfully readable'
New York Review of Books

'A remarkably readable prcis of the whole British imperial story -
triumphs, deceits, decencies, kindnesses, cruelties and all'
Jan
Morris

'Empire is a pleasure to read and brims with insights and intelligence'
Sunday Times